• by Tanya Gazdik , October 2, 2007

TiVo Inc. has formed a group designed to help direct response advertisers better understand the challenges they face in the age of the DVR while educating them about the benefits of TiVo's interactive advertising platform.

Leading the Interactive Direct Response Advertising Group is industry veteran Robert Barnett, who joins Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo as a senior director, managing TiVo's relationship with Worldlink Ventures, Inc., a direct response advertising sales representative for TiVo's interactive advertising platform.

Barnett, who has 25 years of experience as a successful developer, marketer and distributor of content for both the TV syndication and direct response markets, was most recently a marketing consultant with Guthy-Renker, one of the world's largest direct response TV companies, with sales of more than $1.5 billion per year. He will report directly to Karen Bressner, SVP/advertising sales, at TiVo.

The new group and the appointment of Barnett were announced Monday during the 17th Annual Electronic Retailing Conference in Las Vegas.

The group has already added several agencies and brands to its client roster, most recently launching a direct response campaign through Mercury Media, as well as Carat and Basco.

Bressner says the formation of the group was prompted by recent shifts in the television viewing habits of households with DVRs.

"As viewers increasingly embrace TiVo to record, time-shift and fast-forward their favorite television programs and commercials, the amount of time spent channel surfing has significantly diminished, directly impacting viewership numbers for infomercials and other direct response advertisements," Bressner says in a release.

According to TiVo Stop||Watch Service, approximately a third of all DVR users are watching television on a time-shifted basis at any given moment. "We believe that our interactive direct response ad group presents valuable, timely solutions for the direct response market impacted by this growing trend."